A high-profile Communist Party newspaper skewered Google in a front-page story. And more of its partners and advertising customers in the country appeared to be distancing themselves from the company. China's second-biggest mobile phone company is scrapping plans to use Google's search function on two new phones, while the country's most popular Internet portal is reviewing its partnership with Google, executives said Thursday.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, still hopes to expand its non-search operations in China, but its refusal to play by the government's censorship rules could make that unrealistic.

By challenging the often tetchy government, Google appears to have violated an unspoken rule of doing business in China, especially in the Internet industry - whose control Beijing sees as crucial to maintaining its authoritarian rule.